A FEW THOUGHTS

Once again the Nobel committee has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, this time to the President of United States, Barack Obama. The president arrived early this morning and attended meetings with the Nobel committee, the prime minister, the royal family and later the award ceremony at Oslo City Hall. The Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee gave the presentation speech arguing that the Nobel Prize had not just been used to honor specific achievements, but also to give momentum to a set of causes. The Prize could thus represent “a call to action”. President Obama gave a long and thorough acceptance speech “taking the bull by the horn” and addressing the controvercy of both being awarded the peace prize and at the same time sending troops to Afghanistan.

In the evening the President and the First Lady showed their appreciation on the balcony of Grand Hotel Oslo to the ten thousand people paying tribute to the president. Surely some people also attended to protest against the president and the war in Afghanistan. They were, however, too few to even break through the cheering crowd. Later the president gave a speech from the banquet where he humoristicly mentioned that the Chairman during his speech earlier almost had him belive he deserved this.

For Norway, and Oslo as a capital, I think it is fair to say it is exciting to host such a big event for a person of his proportions. You can agree or disagree with his politics but he is the most influential politician of this time, and I for one am excited about his work and await the results with great hope for us all.